A leading historian claims that the skull of Richard the Third proves that he did not murder the Princes in the Tower. Dr John Ashdown-Hill MBE says that tests carried out on the ‘bones in the urn’ found under the stairs at the Tower of London showed that they were unlikely to have been related to the last Plantagenet King.

The bones showed evidence of hypodontia – congenital tooth loss – which is a genetic anomaly not shared with the remains of Richard the Third, strongly suggesting that the two sets of bones were from unrelated persons. Dr Ashdown-Hill said that the bones, which were long-believed to belong to princes Edward and Richard, were not related to Richard the Third and were ‘more likely to be Anglo Saxon remains.’ He went on to say that this is a good indication that the late King had nothing to do with the deaths of his young nephews, adding ‘It is exciting that finding Richard could be instrumental in helping solve another of the most intriguing historical mysteries.’

Dr Ashdown-Hill is now asking for the bones of Richard III to be disinterred from Westminster Abbey so that they can undergo DNA testing in order to definitively answer the question about the remains found at the Tower of London.